The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 482

Jehonat, giving the fragments that remain Ver. 3.-Now (literally, and) Israel loved to the younger Elohist and the late re- J'oseph more than all his children (literally, dactor. The insufficient character of the sons), because he was the son of his old age grounds on which such assignments are -literally, a 8m of old a,ge (was) M to him; not a son possessing the wisdom of advanced made will be noted in the opposition ; in years (Onkelos), but a son born in his old the mean time the .remark is pertinent that age (Rosenmilller, Keil, Kalisch, et alii), their very diversity is one of the strongest which was literally true of Joseph, since he indirect proofs of the Mosaic anthorship of was bom in his father's ninety-first year. Yet the entire composition. as Joseph was only a year or two younger than the children of Bilbah and Zil pah, and Ver. 2. -These are the generations of as Benjamin was still later bom than he, J'acob. The opening of a new section (cf. the application of this epithet to Joseph has eh. ii. 4; v. 1, &c.). J'oseph,-the son of been explained on the ground that Benjamin Rachel, and bom in Padan-aram (eh. xxx. was at this time little more than a child 24)-being seventeen years old,-literally, (Keil), and had not much come into notice a son of s1J1Jenteen years, thus making Jacob (Murphy), or perhaps was not born when 108-was feeding the 11.ock wi~h his bret~- this portion of the narrative was originally ren ·-literally, was shepherding; not hIS written (' Speaker's Commentary'); or that brethren (Bush), but with his brethren, in, Joseph had obtained the name before Ben- or among, the flock- and the lad . was- jamin's birth, and that it had clung to him Ii terally, and he a lad, retate, 'IMribus et after that event (Inglis). Josephus(' Ant.,' innocentia (Lyra), non tantum retate sed et ii. 2, I) gives another reason for Jacob's ministerio (Poole), but most probably de- partiality which is not inconsistent with the signed simply as a nots of his age. Pere- statement in the text, viz., the beauty of his rius, following the Vulgate, C?nnects _the person and the virtue of his mind, cui rE r1)v clause with what precedes; Calvin, Dathrns, roii awµaro, Euyivuav, ,:ai oui ,J,vxij~ ap,nk. Lange, Murphy, Kalisch, and others conjoin And he made him a coat of many colours it with the words that follow; the LXX., -literally, a coat (kithoneth, from kathan, Willet Rosenmilller, Keil, Ainsworth, Bush, to cover ; vide eh. iii. 21) of ends (Keil, &c. reio.rd it as a parenthetical statement- Lange), i. e. a tunic reaching to the ancles, with ~ not in the capacity of a servant and with sleeves reaching to the wrists, anti (Vatablus) or of o. ward (Kaliscl1), but of a commonly worn by boys and girls of the companion-the sons of Bilhe.h, and with upper ranks (Josephus, 'Ant.,' vii. 8, I ; the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. With 2 Sam. xiii. 18), or II coat of pieces (Kalisch, these rather the.n the sons of Leah, as be- T. Lewis, Wordsworth); hence a variegated ing less supercilious an~ haughty than tho garment, -x•rwv 1rou:/~o, (LXX.), tunica children of the first mfe (Lawson), or as polymita (Vulgate), a coat of many colours bein" less opposed to liim than they (Lange), (Murphy, 'Speaker's Commentary'). "Such or m"oro probably as being nearer to his own garments n.ro represented on some of tho R"O than they (Keil), or perhaps as hnving monuments of Egypt. At Beni-Hassan, for b~en brou"ht more into contact with the exnmple, there is n magnificent excnvation lumdmnid~ children, nnd in particular with forming tho tomb of Pihrai, 11 military officer those of Bilhnb, Rnchel's mnid, who may of Osi.rtasen I., in which II train of foreign havo beon to him as a mother after Rachel's captivos appears, who nre suppose,! to bo denth (Rosenmiiller). And J'oseph brought Jcbusites, nn inscription over ono person iu unto his (rather, their) father their evil the group roadin_g, " The Chief of the Lnnd report. Not accusavit fratres suos apud of the Jebusites." The whole of the cap- patrem criminepessimo (Vulgnte), or 1<arfi- tives are clnd in pnrti-colourcd garments, vEy1<av l/,6yov 1ro1111po v 1rp~, Iapa,j~ rov nnd tho tunic of this ind.ividunl in particular 1raripa avrwv (LXX.), ns if Joseph drew mriy bo cnlled " 11 coat of many colours' down upon himself t~eir calumniou~ ro- (Thomley Smith, 'Joseph nnd his Times,' 1•orts, but carried to his_ father nD; eV1l re- p. 12). It has been supposed that Jacob's port concerning them (Kalisch); not mformed object in confcrrinit this distinction on him of whnt he himself saw of their evil Joseph was to mark him out ns the heir doods (Lnwson), though this need not be to whom the forfeited birthright of Reubon excluded, but repeated the mr,, or Jama, (I Chron. v. 1) was to be transferred (Kurtz, always of n. bad character (Rosenmiiller), Lnnc.e 0 Gerlach, Bush, Wordsworth,' Speaker's which was circulllting in the district respect- Com m'ontnry,' &c.); but tho hi~torian only inc. them - malos rttmores qui subinde do mentions it as a token of affection, such as ii% spargebantur (Dathius); - th~ noun was customnry in those times for princes to being derived from an onomntopcetic root, bestow upon their subjects, and parents on :JJ1, signifying to go slowly, or to crcop their children (vide 'l.'homlcy Smith, 'Joseph -~bout. nnd his Times,' p. 11 ). Roberts says th,: 428 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. turr. XXXVII. 2-11.